Tata Steel Rd2: all games drawn

1/17/2016 – In the key encounter Caruana held Carlsen to a 32-move draw with the black pieces after an unorthodox opening. Giri vs Ding was one move longer, also drawn. Hou fought So for 54 moves, but that game too ended in a draw. In the Challengers there were no less than five decisive games, with Batsiashvili remarkably beating van Foreest with black. Report, pictures, video.

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The 78th Tata Steel Chess Tournament takes place from January 15 to 31, 2016, in the coastal village of Wijk aan Zee, North Holland. It is one of the most prestigious events in the international chess calendar. The "Wimbledon of Chess" attracts the very best chess grandmasters in the world, along with thousands of amateur players, live event visitors and online visitors from around the world. The tournament has two main player groups, each with 14 players. They are known as the Tata Steel Masters and the Tata Steel Challengers. You will find the schedule, starting times, pairings and results at the bottom of the page.

The second round of Tata Steel was somewhat of a letdown for those hoping following only the Master tournament. It wasn’t merely the lack of decisive results, but the somewhat lackadaisical games as well. However the chess fans who had no qualms of checking in on the Challenger event had no shortage of entertaining battles on the board to enjoy.

Fabiano Caruana and his second Rustam Kasimdzhanov arriving at the venue (photo by Alina L'Ami)

If the Master group was defined by the many draws, not all draws are equal. Magnus Carlsen’s game against Fabiano Caruana was certainly the most interesting, in spite of the short number of moves. For one, the players were playing a highly unorthodox opening, which clearly meant both were ready to fight from the very beginning. This is the sort of situation that Carlsen excels in, readily giving up his potential opening advantage in order to remove the computer preparation factor from the equation. Things threatened to get out of hand for the young American, but a missed chance by Magnus let Fabiano off the hook and the game was drawn

Fans hoping Ding Liren would unleash his King's Indian a second straight year were disappointed

Even Mamedyarov (right) was unable to impose his character on the game

The Challenger event was quite the opposite with an astonishing 7/7 decisive games in round one, and round two was not far off with only two draws. Still, what stood out was how many players from the previous day found themselves switching chairs in the second round.

Jorden Van Foreest who had won in round one, lost in round two, as did Erwin L’Ami, and Ju Wenjun. On the other hand, Nino Batsiashvili, Mikhail Antipov, and Benjamin Bok, all of whom had come up with the short end of the stick in round one, bounced back with important wins in round two.

Nino Batsiashvili showed grit as she bounced back from her loss with a win over Dutch talent van Foreest

The only two players to succeed in securing two straight wins out of two are the Indian grandmaster Baskaran Adhiban and the Russian Veteran Alexei Dreev.

Adhiban (left) along with Dreev are the only players in either the Masters or Challenger to have 2.0/2

Replay all games from round two: Masters and Challengers

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Playing schedule + Playchess commentary

The two main tournaments are round robins. Both groups start on the 16th of January 2016 in Wijk aan Zee. The Masters move to Amsterdam on January 21, and to Utrecht on January 27. All rounds in Wijk aan Zee begin at 1.30 p.m., except for the last round on 31 January 2016, which begins at 12.00 p.m. Round five will take place in the Science Center NEMO in Amsterdam, and round ten in the Spoorwegmuseum in Utrecht. Both these external rounds start at 2.00 p.m.

Albert SilverBorn in the US, he grew up in Paris, France, where he completed his Baccalaureat, and after college moved to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He had a peak rating of 2240 FIDE, and was a key designer of Chess Assistant 6. In 2010 he joined the ChessBase family as an editor and writer at ChessBase News. He is also a passionate photographer with work appearing in numerous publications.

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12/6/2017 – Imagine this: you tell a computer system how the pieces move — nothing more. Then you tell it to learn to play the game. And a day later — yes, just 24 hours — it has figured it out to the level that beats the strongest programs in the world convincingly! DeepMind, the company that recently created the strongest Go program in the world, turned its attention to chess, and came up with this spectacular result.

Video

On this 60 mins video we are going to concentrate on a simple, very solid idea in the main line Scandinavian, which even Magnus Carlsen has used to win games. Black focusses on making his life easy in the opening and forces White to work very hard to get advantage – but it is doubtful if White can get an advantage. Club players are always on the lookout for effective, time-saving solutions and here we have just that. Accompany FIDE Senior Trainer and IM Andrew Martin on this 60 mins video. You can learn a new opening system in 60 mins and start to play it with confidence on the very same day!

Discuss

Kasimdzhanov eating his apple with right hand I wonder if hi is left handed?

RaoulBertorello 1/18/2016 11:47

To Albert Silver, or to somebody here who can tell about it: at the beginning of this article there's a photo whose caption says Caruana's second is Rustam Kasimdzhanov. Vladimir Chuchelov is no longer Caruana's second, is that what you're saying ? If it's so, where did you get the news ?

Enjoy the best moments of recent top tournaments (World Cup, Isle of Man Open) with analysis of top players. In addition you'll get lots of training material. For example 10 new suggestions for your opening repertoire.